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David House, group president, Global Network and Establishment Services and Travelers Cheque and Prepaid Services Group, has decided to retire from American Express later this year. House joined the company in 1993 as senior vice president of Sales and Field Marketing for the U.S. Establishment Services Group (ES). During his tenure, he secured a record number of agreements with U.S. merchants to accept the American Express Card. From 1995 to 2000, House was president of ES in the United States. In this role, he significantly expanded the company’s presence outside of its traditional travel and entertainment niche, and was responsible for signing major new retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco.

There is a range of fees tied to filing cases in a federal bankruptcy court, depending on the chapter of the Bankruptcy Code under which you file.

In October 2005, the fee for filing a bankruptcy petition under Chapter 7, by far the most common form filed by individuals, will increase from $155 to $220. In addition, there is a $15 Chapter 7 trustee fee and a $39 administrative fee – for a total fee of $274 in Chapter 7 cases.

Chapter 7 is designed to allow individuals to keep certain exempt property while their remaining property is sold to repay creditors.

In 2004, 1.13 million of the 1.59 million bankruptcy petitions reported in the United States were filed under Chapter 7.

Moneris Solutions has become the first payment provider in Canada to process an Interac Online transaction. Interac Online is a new service that allows Canadians to pay for goods and services purchased on the Internet directly from their bank account. Until now, credit cards were the primary payment option available to Canadians when shopping online. With the introduction of Interac Online, consumers will have the flexibility to pay for purchases made over the Internet through a direct debit to their bank account. This added payment option gives merchants access to a larger pool of potential customers who either do not possess a credit card or are looking for innovative payment alternatives. Moneris recently signed an agreement with The Source By Circuit City to implement Interac Online into its comprehensive e-commerce Web site – TheSourceCC.com. The Interac Online service will be generally available for the back-to-school season.

NCR’s Kinetics has introduced the “CheckinHere” kiosk, a credit card-enabled, multi-airline check-in system. The self-service solution uses a centralized service that unifies all of Kinetics’ airline partners onto one screen for a consistent look and feel in every location for every carrier. CheckinHere requires minimal IT resources and meets all Transportation Security Administration, International Air Transport Association and Common-User Self-Service requirements. Kinetics is a provider of enterprise and self-service technologies to the travel industry.

American Bank Note Holographics has named Mark Bonney as EVP/CFO. Bonney was CFO of Zygo Corporation and President and COO of Axsys Technologies. ABNH also named Ron McClenny, formerly with JVC Magnetics America, as VP/Engineering and Quality Assurance. Dr. John Hynes, formerly President of Card Based Information Technologies, has been appointed to VP/CTO. NY-based ABNH reported sales for the first quarter of $6.4 million and record net income of $600,000. The Company is in the process of staffing its new state-of-the art facility in Robbinsville, NJ. It expects to move its manufacturing operations from Elmsford and Huntingdon Valley in June and July. ABNH recently signed an agreement with VISA to supply its new “HoloMag” design on VISA-branded cards worldwide. For complete details on ABNH’s first quarter performance visit CardData ([www.carddata.com][1]) (CF Library 5/17/05)

Jodhpur in Rajasthan was the location for the filming of VISA International’s new TV commercial which features Richard Gere. The commercial will be aired across Asia Pacific. India will be the first market to go on-air in both English and Hindi on all major channels. The commercial reflects the beauty, scenery and the imagery of India and brings together a cast and crew that is a blend of the best of East and West. The central theme of “Birds” is based on the spirit of generosity and the giving spirit demonstrated through the ritual of letting birds go free to bring good luck to a relative or friend embarking on a journey, a ritual that runs across several different cultures in the Asia Pacific region including India. Mumbai-based Ranjit Barot composed the earthy and rhythmic music for the commercial, which was produced and developed by VISA’s advertising agency BBDO Clemenger, Australia with support and collaboration from Stratum Films of Mumbai.

eFunds has inked an agreement to acquire WildCard Systems for an upfront payment of $228.8 million plus an earn-out of up to $58.8 million. In November, the two Companies signed a distribution agreement and have since signed two tier one financial institution deals under eFunds’ existing alliance with MasterCard. Privately-held WildCard Systems, founded in 1997, specializes in turnkey host-based prepaid cards and custom stored-value products. WildCard is certified by VISA, MasterCard and Discover as an endpoint on their networks and is authorized to be an issuing processor for cards bearing VISA, Electron, Interlink, PLUS, MasterCard, Maestro, Cirrus and Discover/NOVUS payment marks. eFunds says that net revenues for WildCard are anticipated to increase approximately 30% over the revenues of $56.5 million it recorded last year. The deal, which includes a $22.8 million holdback, is expected to close in July.

Internationally renowned hair salon TONI&GUY has selected Givex as their card management provider for gift cards, loyalty schemes and incentive programs. Starting next month, Givex’s gift card program will be gradually launched in 240 TONI&GUY franchises in the U.K. and Ireland with Australia and other European locations starting later this year. The TONI&GUY group currently has 217 salons in the U.K., 139 internationally in 35 countries worldwide. Givex is among the fastest growing transaction processors worldwide.

Laurentian Bank of Canada has completed an agreement to offer the Western Union Money Transfer service across the bank’s network of 156 branches. The agreement follows the completion of a successful pilot project launched in December. The deal also expands upon the relationship between Laurentian and First Data. FDC has provided card processing services to Laurentian Bank since 2000. With the addition of the Laurentian Bank branches, Western Union’s Canadian agent network now includes more than 3,200 locations including almost 300 locations in Greater Montreal area.

EuroProcessing International is being acquired by First Data from Reiten & Co Capital Partners. EPI is active in ten Central and Eastern European countries including Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Serbia and Montenegro, Russia and Hungary. The deal will give First Data a foothold in Eastern Europe and the Nordic region. EPI has more than 330 employees. The Company provides issuer and acquirer processing services including ATM and POS transaction processing, rental and maintenance, debit and credit card management, card personalization and electronic top-up of prepaid mobile airtime through POS, ATM and GSM messages.

HSBC has acquired all the ordinary share capital of Invis. Invis negotiated more than C$4.5 billion of mortgages on behalf of homeowners and homebuyers in 2004. More than 550 individual mortgage brokers work with Invis in locations from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland. HSBC Financial offers a diversified range of consumer financial services to the Canadian public through a network of over 100 retail branches and other distribution channels.

Shell Canada has selected ViVOtech’s “ViVOpay” technology to enable its in-store “easyPAY” contactless payment program. The easyPAY key fob-based system is based upon a wireless radio frequency technology that is unique to Shell Canada. easyPAY also offers the national AIR MILES Reward Program to its users. easyPAY AIR MILES Collectors are automatically awarded AIR MILES for qualifying purchases. ViVOtech provides an end-to-end transaction platform that allows consumers to make contactless payments with more than 70,000 of its contactless payment readers shipped around the world.